The Manhattan Business Directory of Maryland (MBD) offers a unique advertising experience for businesses hoping to get their name recognized.

Maryland’s MBD gives businesses the opportunity to display advertisements in full color on the glossy pages of the directory’s semiannually published booklet. It caters to various Maryland communities including Frederick, Howard and Harford counties, Sykesville, Eldersburg, Westminster, Rockvilleand Towson.

Following after the success of her brother’s original Manhattan Business Directory, a New York-based publication, founder of the Maryland MBD Amy Giannakoulias decided to adopt his methods and apply them locally. Thus far she has met with success, achieving average mailings of about 30,000directories to specific zip codes in Maryland.

But what sets the MBD apart from traditional classified and newspaper ads aside from full color printing? For one, customer service.

Another aspect, as explained on the Maryland MBD Web site, is shelf life. Aside from its far-from-shoddy construction, the MBD is able to stay in consumers’ hands for longer because of its hyper-focused purpose – to advertise. Other advertising venues, such as newspapers, do not have the longevity of MBD, the site explains.

Though success in the region was not immediate; Giannakoulias said getting the MBD started in Maryland was not an easy task.

“My biggest challenge was establishing a new concept in advertising never seen before in Carroll County,” she said. “I was persistent in my efforts to spread the word of a new opportunity for businesses to expand their operations and profits.”

This, she explained, helped to gain the businesses confidence in the publication and eventually led to MBD Maryland becoming a successful enterprise. She added that her experience as a manager of six differentdepartments at Nordstrom helped her to gain the customer service ability that she uses to gain and retain clients.

With current economic woes, Giannakoulias said that several companies have reduced their advertising budgets. This, she stressed, is a mistake.

“Businesses frequently give up market share to their competitors and never recover fully when the economy and consumer confidence improve,” Giannakoulias explained. “Our company assists with a proper marketing strategy and we help our clients expend their money wisely to gain the most for each dollar invested in essential advertising.”

With the Maryland MBD stable as is, Giannakoulias is looking to the future. She said she plans on expanding the MBD into a larger geographic area as well as moving some more of the content online so to give the businesses more exposure. The MBD Maryland Web site currently just has PDFs of the physical directory.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Other information on the directory is available at http://www.mbdmaryland.com/.